September 13, 2026
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Russian drones strike Kyiv-Warsaw train and infrastructure near Polish border, prompting Polish emergency meeting
On the morning of September 13, 2026, Russian drones struck infrastructure near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk international border crossing on the Ukraine-Poland border in Volyn Oblast, damaging a gas station, hitting a truck on the Polish side, and striking the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train about two kilometers from the Polish border. Poland scrambled fighter jets, issued air alerts in Lublin and Podkarpackie voivodeships, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency meeting at the Government Centre for Security, warning that Russian escalation could reach Polish territory in the coming weeks. No passengers or railway workers were injured in the locomotive strike after a Ukrzaliznytsia monitoring group warned the crew in advance and gave an evacuation signal roughly 15 minutes before impact.
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Trump urges Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian diesel infrastructure, blames them for global shortage
On 13 September 2026, visiting his Doonbeg golf club during the Irish Open in County Clare, Ireland, US President Donald Trump called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop striking Russian diesel fuel infrastructure, saying those attacks are causing a global diesel shortage. Trump said the deficit stems from the Russia–Ukraine war and not from US actions in the Middle East, and noted he had already discussed the issue with Zelensky. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski publicly disagreed, and a senior European official briefed on US-mediated talks called the reasoning "absurd."
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Zelensky signs sanctions against former press secretary Mendel and Russian propagandists
President Volodymyr Zelensky on 13 September 2026 enacted personal sanctions imposed by the National Security and Defense Council against his former press secretary Yulia Mendel, the only Ukrainian citizen among 10 individuals in the package. On the same day he signed two further decrees targeting 29 Russian citizens and 29 companies linked to the state corporation Rostec, and 20 vessels of the Russian shadow fleet. The move follows a May 2026 interview in which Mendel repeated Russian-aligned claims to U.S. podcaster Tucker Carlson.
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Poland will not block opening of EU accession clusters for Ukraine, Sikorski says
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said at a joint briefing in Kyiv with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha that Poland will not block the opening of new EU accession negotiation clusters for Ukraine. He framed Ukraine's path as analogous to Poland's own accession experience and linked Ukrainian security to Poland's, warning that "Russian terrorism has already entered Europe."
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Kushner says most of Ukraine–Russia peace deal is ready, with territorial question the last obstacle
US special envoy Jared Kushner told the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kyiv on September 12 that most of a Ukraine–Russia peace agreement has been prepared, and that the territorial question — Ukraine's refusal to withdraw to the line Russia is demanding — is the remaining obstacle. He said he hopes to announce "next steps" in the talks within the next two weeks and expressed support for returning to a trilateral format. Kyiv has previously rejected Putin's demands that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.